


And some say that's absurd

by keysmash



Series: Supernatural s5 Codas [22]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-10
Updated: 2010-02-10
Packaged: 2017-10-07 03:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keysmash/pseuds/keysmash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When it comes, will it come without warning<br/>Just as I'm picking my nose?<br/>Will it knock on my door in the morning,<br/>Or tread in the bus on my shoes?<br/>Will it come like a change in the weather?<br/>Will its greeting be courteous or rough?<br/>Will it alter my life altogether?<br/>O tell me the truth about love.</p><p>from W.H. Auden's "<a href="http://community.livejournal.com/greatpoets/2718037.html">O Tell Me The Truth About Love</a>"</p>
            </blockquote>





	And some say that's absurd

**Author's Note:**

> The Song Remains The Same coda. Written for prompt 21 of my [](http://community.livejournal.com/spn_30snapshots/profile)[**spn_30snapshots**](http://community.livejournal.com/spn_30snapshots/) [table](http://latentfunction.livejournal.com/349450.html); previous codas are also linked in that post. Title from W.H. Auden.

It's not like there's a manual for how to care for injured angels or anything. Castiel stayed conked out for a long time, and neither Sam nor Dean really knew what to do about it. In the end, they treated him like any other hurt person — took off his shoes and coat, cleaned his face and hands, and bullied him into drinking as much water as they could. When day turned to night without him stirring, Sam found a grocery store and bought a box of sugar cubes. They propped Castiel up between them and let a few dissolve on his tongue. His cheeks pinked up some after that, but he still didn't rouse, and eventually they covered him with a blanket and went to bed themselves.

They'd never stopped getting rooms with two beds. It gave them another flat surface for storage; they never had to sleep in the wet spot; they could go their own ways on the nights when everything was elbows and knees and shoving; they could each slink off to have their nightmares in private. It didn't get them looked at twice when they checked in. And when someone they knew dropped by, they didn't have to explain things that were no one else's business.

They had room to take care of Castiel now, and if Sam and Dean crawled into the other bed without arguing about it, much, then that just meant something about this day had gone easily.

With both of them in bed at once, pressing close was pretty much a foregone conclusion. Dean grumbled about it more than usual, as if putting on a show for Castiel regardless of whether he was conscious to see it, but Sam rolled his eyes and waited for him to get over it. Dean settled after a few moments, stretched out on his belly with one arm slung across Sam's hips, and Sam gave Castiel one final glance before sinking deeper into his pillows.

Dean shifted around, moving his legs around and tugging Sam a little to side to put his shoulder in the best position to be hooked under Dean's chin, and Sam huffed out a sigh and tried to ignore it. They were long past the days of sleeping together with plenty of room left over, and even with how things changed recently, they both sucked at sharing a bed when they weren't huddling together for warmth, or to keep the afterglow burning as long as possible.

Sam put up with it a little longer before gripping Dean's upper arm and turning to glare at him. It was too dark to really be able to make out Dean's expression, so Dean probably couldn't see his either, but Sam figured the point would get across. "Any chance of you holding still any time soon?"

Dean shrugged. "So it's taking me a while to get to sleep, so what. Today was freaking out of nowhere."

"We always have weird days." Sam rolled his eyes, but Dean had a point. He wondered if Mary would have changed her mind about having them anyway if they'd told her everything that would happen — that Dean would do time in Hell, that the two of them would set off the Apocalypse, and that, at the end of it all, they'd wind up in bed together. He wondered what it meant that he and Dean were willing to go back in time to fix things, but not to take care of it themselves, now.

"Anna's idea," he started, slowly, and he felt Dean tense up all against him.

"No," he said. "No, just not at all."

"She had a point," Sam repeated, and Dean tugged him a little closer, pulling them together.

"We've gone through enough shit at this point trying to keep both of us alive and in one piece and on freaking Earth that we're not — no. Shut up."

Sam shrugged. "Worth a mention."

"It's really not."

Castiel snuffled from the other bed and shifted, as if he were going to roll over, but then fell still again without changing position. They both looked at him, Sam turning his head on the pillow and Dean pushing up on an elbow for a moment, then glanced back to each other.

"What happens if he wakes up before we do?" Sam asked.

"Then he wakes up before we do," Dean said. "Hopefully he's got the good sense to get us up so we can get him some food or something." He closed his eyes and Sam raised his eyebrows before nudging Dean with his elbow.

"C'mon, seriously."

He huffed. "If Cas was gonna say something, he would have done it by now."

"You think so?"

"Yes. God, shut up already."

"What, you already said you were having trouble going to sleep."

"Yeah, because there's this jackass that won't stop talking." They'd both lowered their voices since Castiel stirred, and Dean leaned up to hiss this into Sam's ear. Sam rolled his eyes and stayed quiet for a while, but he didn't fall asleep, and he could tell that Dean didn't, either.

"We didn't change anything." Sam closed his eyes and pressed his face into the top of Dean's head for a moment. "It's all still gonna happen."

Dean sighed heavily and shifted some, sliding his hand from Sam's hipbone underneath his shirt, and then worming his arm high enough to press his palm over Sam's tattoo, over his heart. "Everything til right now, yeah. But the rest of it is still up to us."

Sam took a breath to keep going, and Dean shook his head and pinched his nipple. "No," he said. "Shut up. I'm not messing around with my actual guardian angel in the other bed, so we're going to sleep. Stop talking now."

Sam snorted but he rolled onto his side, facing Castiel's bed. Dean moved with him, keeping his hand inside Sam's shirt, and if he did pull it out, it was after Sam fell asleep.


End file.
